In his election rallies over the past week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been referring to former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, saying that the Congress leader was called “Mr Clean” by his courtiers but he ended up as “Corrupt Number One”. This cannot be criticised for its inaccuracy. It is Modi’s rhetorical retort to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who had been referring to Modi as “Chowkidar chor hai (the guard is the thief)”. Many who have seen the unfolding of the Indian media’s great non-story on the Bofors kickbacks will remember the slogan of the Opposition, including the Bharatiya Janata Party, headed by VP Singh: “gali gali mein shor hai Rajiv Gandhi chor hai (In every alley they are saying Rajiv Gandhi is the thief)”. The liberal media in those days did not object to the slogan because it was chasing the Bofors kickbacks story with exemplary zeal.

The chant against Rajiv Gandhi was repeated by BJP members in the Lok Sabha when proceedings were stalled by the Opposition parties over the Tehelka sting operation, Operation Westend, about defense deals in March 2001. Defense minister George Fernandes had to resign. It is possible that Rahul Gandhi repeats the “Chowkidar chor hai” taunt in the context of the Rafale deal with a certain grudge because he must be aware of the Bofors controversy and the slogan the Opposition, including the BJP, had coined against his father. At the time of Bofors, Rahul Gandhi was a late teenager, and Modi had moved from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh to the BJP. The charges against Rajiv Gandhi in the Bofors case were not proved, but he had lost power in the 1989 election, where his party was reduced to 197 from a commanding 404 during the 1984 election, mainly on the issues of Bofors and corruption.

It is a fact that Rajiv Gandhi was described as Mr Clean by critics of the Congress and not by his courtiers. There was a short time when critics of Indira Gandhi and her Congress loved Rajiv Gandhi—but not the Congress. His courtiers were not too happy that Gandhi wanted things to be above board because he had famously described the Congress as a party of “power-brokers” in the Congress centenary address. Rajiv Gandhi was painted as “corrupt” by the VP Singh-led Opposition. So far, Modi’s alleged wrongdoing in the Rafale deal has not yet been established, and he and the BJP are trying hard to fend off criticism over it.

There was clarity in the Bofors deal as well as the charge over the payment of commission. The Bofors howitzer gun was delivered to the Indian Army. The Rafale deal remains fuzzy and suspicious because instead of the initial plan to purchase 126 Rafale jet fighters, Modi had announced an off-the-shelf purchase of 36 aircraft, and no information is available about snapping the initial deal. The Rafale jets are supposed to be delivered to the Indian Air Force in September this year.

Rahul Gandhi and the rest of the Opposition has failed so far to prove the Modi government’s fudginess over the purchase of Rafale fighter planes. Rafale did not become for Modi the albatross that Bofors had become for Rajiv Gandhi. The propaganda of the anti-Rajiv Gandhi Opposition, ably aided and abetted by the liberal media, succeeded where Rahul Gandhi’s attempt to corner Mr Modi over Rafale has proved to be pathetically ineffective.

What is of interest in the “chor” epithet thrown up in connection with the Bofors and Rafale deals is not whether it is true or not, but the power of propaganda. The BJP and the rest of the Opposition were immensely successful in turning unproven allegations into an effective political slogan. Rahul Gandhi failed to “weaponise” the allegation against Modi. A flip side of democratic politics is the power of propaganda where unguarded people are bombarded with slogans and not with information. The BJP remains a powerful machine of propaganda, where its messaging overwhelms the media as well as consumers of the media.

Modi, now that he has an opening to attack Rajiv Gandhi—an opening provided by Rahul Gandhi’s harping on “Chowkidar chor hai”—is continuing to attack Rajiv Gandhi on other counts as well. The moot question, however, is whether 30 years after he had lost the election, and 29 years after his assassination, it will help Modi to target Rajiv Gandhi and gain electoral advantage. Modi wants to attack the dynastic politics of the Congress, and Rajiv Gandhi was the last Nehru-Gandhi prime minister. It is inevitable that Modi should target Rajiv Gandhi. It may not, however, be of much help to Modi. The younger generation of voters have no idea about Rajiv Gandhi or about the Bofors controversy. Modi is unlikely to garner votes by recalling the “corrupt” ways of Rajiv Gandhi.

It appears that Modi has walked into a trap of his own making. Instead of talking about his government’s achievements, he is enumerating the wrongs apparently committed by Rajiv Gandhi more than 30 years ago. Modi should know that Rajiv Gandhi has no resonance in the present day. Modi is compelled to recall the Rajiv Gandhi era to defend himself on the Rafale deal. The Rahul Gandhi gambit seemed to have worked at the very point when the Congress president’s charge seemed not to gain traction.